Let's say I am at the train station and I missed the train, I still see it driving off. I would naturally say to myself: 'Damn, that was the train I was hoping to get.' Would that be wrong? If not, why is the past progressive used here? I have been taught that you use the past progressive when you are either talking...
- about a longer action that was interrupted by a shorter action
- about actions that were happening at the same time
- about an action that was in process at a specific time in the past
However, my sentence doesn't follow any of the rules above (at least I don't see that).
Another sentence that I can't gramatically explain...
Context: You told your friend David that Fred would not behave good when he is drunk before going to a party at which Fred gets drunk and then behaves bad. Later you say to David 'See? That's what I was talking about.' What's the grammatical explanation of this?
Can anyone give me a rule why these sentences work?
Thank you in advance!
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